Over the fence chat for week of 9-2-02

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Country Style Homesteading : One Thread

Wow, that sure seemed like a long down time. Everytime it goes down I am afraid it will never come back!!!

I hope that everyone had a nice holiday weekend. My hubby worked all weekend so it didn't seem much like a holiday to us, but it will when he get the pay for it!!!

We finished putting the last of the meat chickens in the freezer this morning. I am very grateful that we have the meat, but equally as grateful that that job is done for another year. I always feel so wealthy this time of year. We butcher the pig on friday and then we will have all our pork, beef and chicken put up for another year, as well as all the fruits and veggies. We may be poor folk, but we sure eat like kings.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), September 03, 2002

Answers

Hey there, Diane!! It did seem like a REALLY long down time, didn't it!? Scary!!

I just finished up the last of my meat chickens last week, too. I'm not crazy about that job, especially when I let them get a little too big like I did this year :-)!! AND...the yellow jackets drive me crazy buzzing around after that blood. I hate them!! We still have six turkeys to butcher, but they need about another month or so of growth....as do the pigs. We will be getting our beef this coming weeked, though. A friend of ours raises grass-fed beef and we buy a half every year. It costs us about $1.85 a pound, but then too, it's all cut, packaged and frozen!! I think it's worth the expense. We're getting too old to raise and butcher a beef steer!! Pigs, turkeys and chickens are no problem! Like you said...we might be poor, but we eat like kings (and queens!)!!

Finally getting some much-needed rain around here. It's been such a hot, humid and dry summer. Or rather...I should say rainless rather than dry, since it has been sticky and humid!! I have most of my canning and freezing from the garden done...although the tomatoes and beans and still coming. Corn's doing okay and this rain will certainly help it!

I think my new horse and my goats have finally adapted to each other. I have one doe that, on occasion, insists on running through the electric tape into the horse's paddock and stall! And my goat's have never run through the fence before!! But they really seem to be forming an attachment, so I guess I wont fight them. But I'm sure that I'll have a doe following me the first time I go out horseback riding!!

That's about it from Maine!!

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), September 03, 2002.


There is an old sayin that my pappy used to say years and years ago. "The farmer feeds the world and sets at the head of the table"! We may've been poor in worldly cash but the food we eat was fit for a king! Ain't nuthin changed since then as far as I'm concerned! That home grow'd meat and vegs are the absolute best in the entire world---so ya'll are right --eat'n like a king and queen! old hoot. Matt.24:44

-- old hoot (hoot@pcinetwork.com), September 03, 2002.

Marcia......perhaps I should have said.........the pig is GOING to the butcher.......lol. We don't do big animals, just poultry. Maybe we should compare bird sizes and see who was the procrastination queen?? I put mine in the brooder May 14th if that tells you anything. It was so hot for so long and then we would have a nice day and I wouldn't want to ruin it by having to kill chickens :>) . The breasts on the birds I did averaged 4 1/2 pounds!!!!

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), September 04, 2002.

Sounds like you have been busy! I've been elbow deep in hot sauce. We use soooo much of it during the year, I have to can quite a bit. Also started some sauerkraut yesterday. We've had some nice rains this last month so everything is greener than usual. I love it! I have some ducks to get in the freezer, (maybe this weekend I'll get to them). Hope everyone has a great weekend.

-- cowgirlone in ok (cowgirlone47@hotmail.com), September 06, 2002.

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